National Business Wire (Dec 18) -- Vietnamese electric car maker VinFast said Monday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Japan-based Marubeni Corp on the reuse of electric vehicle batteries.

VinFast will provide used batteries, which Marubeni will recycle into easy-to-manufacture, affordable battery energy storage systems (BESS), the Vietnamese company said in a statement.

The repurposing process does not require disassembly, processing and repackaging of the batteries, according to the deal.

The agreement, which is part of the two companies' push to establish a circular economy model, came at the ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit in Tokyo over the weekend.